Élan

I\'d like to take a crack at this and share my own thoughts.\n\n"Leave the sleep and let the springtime talk\nIn tongues from the time before man\nListen to a daffodil tell her tale"\n\nThe implication here is that you should get up early in the morning in the spring. You can interpret the song in a mythic and esoteric sense, but I prefer to see \'letting the springtime talk\' as a poetic way to say \'get up before dawn and enjoy the spring wilderness, meditate and take in nature in a way you are usually too busy and preoccupied to enjoy\'.\n\n"Let the guest in, walk out, be the first to greet the morn"\n\nI think the \'guest\' is the light of day...in other words, open up your curtains, let the sunlight seep into the darkness, embrace the start of your day and all the possibilities it offers you.\n\n"The meadows of heaven await harvest\nThe cliffs unjumped, cold waters untouched\nThe elsewhere creatures yet unseen"\n\nA heavenly meadow awaiting harvest implies great fields all around you filled with fruits and vegetables no one has tasted or picked. Cliff unjumped and cold waters untouched imply excitement and refreshment no one is enjoying yet. Elsewhere creatures again hint at something mythic and esoteric but can also imply animals who are wondrous and beautiful that are not normally seen by people. All of this conveys the general idea that there is a world waiting right outside waiting for you to experience.\n\n"Finally your number came up, freefall awaits the brave"\n\nAnd this wraps up the opening thesis of the song- there is a vast, wondrous world out there waiting to be experienced, and this is your chance to see it. Be brave and embrace it.\n\n"Come, taste the wine"\n\nFairly straight forward, wine is a heady alcohol that often as a deep, unique taste that varies on the brand. The line is both an invitation to revel and celebrate and to savor the flavor of something pleasurable and soporific.\n\n"Raise the blind\nThey will guide you from the light"\n\nUnsure if the line is meant to be \'raise\' or \'race\'. If the former it implies perhaps to lift them up and help them walk. Either way the metaphor is clear- the blind experience the world in a way other people can see, and once again the song is urging us to seek out those novel experiences for ourselves.\n\n"Writing noughts till the end of time"\n\nA \'nought\' in this context I believe is a cipher, a secret code. This gets developed more in the next part of the song, but my interpretation is that the song is encourage us to not only experience the wonders of life for ourselves but to write them down as songs or poems to inspire others to seek out those experiences in turn. In a cyclic sense, the song is encouraging us to do what it is doing, couching itself in mysterious and poetic language that must be deconstructed. It wants us to be inspired and continue to inspire other people.\n\n"Come, surf the clouds\nRace the dark\nIt feeds from the runs undone"\n\nMuch like the line about freefall this imagery speaks to flying in the sky. Most likely in a metaphorical sense, e.g. \'letting your imagination soar\'. The line about racing the dark and runs undone is rather strange. My interpretation is that darkness thrives on all the times you avoid inspiration and exploration, so confront it and race it with energy and enthusiasm- race the darkness because otherwise it will feed from your refusal to run around and experience the world.\n\n"Meet me where the cliff greets the sea"\n\nA few way to interpret that line. First, we return to the notion of flight, freefall, and the \'cliffs unjumped\'. In other words, you will find whoever is singing the song in the moment of excitement you experience diving into the sea. More mythically, the shore is a liminal space that exists between land and ocean, and such space have a rich meaning in metaphor and esoteric circles. The singer, the person inviting you to experience all these things, is never stated. It could be the personification of life, or the source of your inspiration. Whoever or whatever it is strongly calls on you to meet it and experience life by its side.\n\n"The answer to the riddle before your eyes\nIs in dead leaves and fleeting skies\nReturning swans and sedulous mice\nWriting\'s on the gardens book, in the minute of a lover\'s look\nBuilding a sandcastle close to the shore\nA house of cards from a worn-out deck\nA home from the fellowship, poise and calm"\n\nAgain we see the theme of writing naughts until the end of time, perhaps more blatantly than ever. The song seems to want us not merely to experience wonders, but to record them and find personal meaning in the small moments that happen all around us that we often ignore. Seemingly normal things like a house of cards take on a deeper, almost magical meaning when approached from a certain mindset.\n\n"Write a lyric for the song only you can understand"\n\nGiven the heavy amount of poetry throughout the song, I feel like this is the writer winking at the listener. \'Yes, I wrote this and filled it with imagery that speaks personally to me. Go out and do the same.\'\n\n\n"Riding hard every shooting star"\n\nReturning again to flying and freefalling and racing in the darkness. The tempo also picks up here, as if the singer is experiencing the thrills and wonders as she sing about them.\n\n"Come to life, open mind, have a laugh at the orthodox\nCome, drink deep let the dam of mind seep\nTravel with great élan, dance a jig at the funeral, come!"\n\nSums up the thesis of the song very well. Leap into the wonders of life, and by experiencing all the incredible things with love and enthusiasm feel your imagination awaken and inspire you. And when your done, take a look back at the \'orthodox\' people, the ones who chose to sleep rather than rise up and experience the springtime, and laugh at them and the fact that you might have missed out on all the wonders described if you\'d chosen to be one of them. Elan, the title of the song, means to have great enthusiasm. Dancing a jig at the funeral implies enjoying life rather than being preoccupied with death, because doing otherwise is just wasting a chance at seeing wonder and beauty that will never come again. Life is an invitation to enjoy yourself. Come!